Leeds Pub Crawl 1999

As part of my Computing degree back in the late 90s I did a “multimedia guide to the pubs of leeds” – This involved much careful research of the pubs around Leeds at the time and I stumbled across a load of (badly taken) photos that I used as part of the multimedia experience!

I make no apologies for the quality of the photos and realise they’re pretty crappy. Also, some of the pubs are still standing and haven’t changed a bit. Anyway…….

Beckett Park Campus

Beckett Park Campus

“Berlins” (now Belgrave Music Hall). This seemed to be the pub everyone started their night in. Notable for the big spinning wheel in the centre of the pub where you could win a prize

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Disclaimer

Each process may differ slightly to the one I described below. Always start the process rolling by sending photos of your docs first (to contact@drmartens.com) with your docs4Life membership number).

Background

Ok I admit it I currently own 5 pairs of docs 🙂 . One of the pair I bought a couple of years ago were from “Docs4Life”. The Docs4life range cost a little bit more than standard docs but are reinforced in terms of their soles and for an admin fee of £20 you can chip your docs in once they’re knackered and receive a new pair. So I worked out that once I’ve put 1 claim in I’ve made my money back. So after 2 years (as you can see) my docs were in a pretty crappy state so it’s time to make a claim…..

The Process

In order to make a claim you’ll need your docs4life reference number and some photos of the wear and tear on the docs themselves. Email contact@drmartens.com and they will get back to you within 5 days. However, as you can see that’s a pretty generic email address and if you phone them once you’ve emailed and explain that you’ve sent them a claim they will dig your email out and process it quicker. Once they’d assessed the photos and confirmed the damage I was advised to cut the tongues out of my doc martens?! and provide photos of the docs with the tongues cut out and photos of the tongues on their own. I realised that in doing this I’m effectively destroying my docs and there would be little point me posting these on. This was confirmed when customer services got back to me and stated that I wouldn’t have to post my docs out. All that was left was for me to pay the £20 admin fee.

Limited Replacement Range

Disappointed to learn that the brown docs I bought are no longer in the Docs4Life range. In face the only colours available (at time of writing) is black and red. Went for black and after 3 days the new pair arrived.

Related

Over Xmas 2016 (27th December to be precise) I decided to deactivate my Facebook account. Been thinking about it for a while and having a bit of time off work meant I could take a step back and re-evaluate what value it adds to my life, and it’s very little if I’m honest. I’d kinda fallen out of love with it a long time ago and most of my posts only comprise of images linked from when I post images on Instagram or Youtube links of stuff I’m listening to which of course lead to about 90% of my Friends bored shitless 🙂 . I was planning on reactivating my account after the Xmas festivities but having spent the last week off Facebook and not missing it I doubt I’ll bother.

Anyway some of the reasons and pros and cons as to why I quit are below.

Time Killer

Facebook kills so much time and it’s scary to see how much time you spend wading through stuff (mainly ads and clickbait – see below) and not really getting anything of interest back. Sure it’s great to see what friends are up to but it’s very likely they’re also on Twitter, Instagram etc which are 2 platforms that are suited better for that sort of thing.

Even now I’m procrastinating writing about feckin Facebook! That said it feels like I’ve gained about 20% of my life back. Time that I can spend on other things like reading, learning, meditation, going out, seeing friends just enjoying life really.

Facebook “Features” – Events

I focus on gigs and music here (as that’s what interests me) but you can easily apply this to Sports Events, Local Community Events whatever floats your boat really.

It just feels like Facebook isn’t the right platform for organising/attending events etc. It’s trying to do too much and failing badly. All the content you put on Facebook generates more revenue for them then it will for you. If you organise an event and post a Facebook event page to promote it immediately Facebook are benefiting from your efforts. They can direct advertising at people who click through and profile them further for future advertising and clickbait bullshit. It’s also easy to click “Yes” I’m attending but much more of an effort to get off your backside and actually attend so that feature offers little benefit.

It’s another page that the venue/organiser has to update and will probably fail to do so when there’s a last minute change or cancellation. Much easier to tweet or for the venue to update their website.

Bands websites and mail outs are the best way of finding out about events. I’m much more likely to read an email mailout from a band and make a note of the tour dates rather than stumble over a Facebook event. British Sea Power and The Wedding Present are 2 bands that spring to mind that do great email mailouts. Ents24 is also worth a mention here for gig alerts as a much better alternative to Facebook events.

Clickbait / Ads

One of the things that has really pissed me off with Facebook recently is the amount of adverts and clickbait bullshit. It’s getting real nasty as well. Some of the clickbait now is showing nudity or violence. One I saw fairly recently was some gruesome scene with “You’ll never guess what happened next!!”. I know it’s bullshit but why do I have to wade through all this shit. There’s better revenue models out there. Oh yeah, and they’re making money through all of your content and likes etc.

Innovation

Facebook’s algorithms seem absolutely batshit crazy at the moment. Why when I refresh my “news feed” do I get a different ordered set of posts each time? Just post them in decesnding time order like any normal person would do. And that’s another thing why do I have to refresh my feed? Another click, just stream it like Twitter does.

Facebook feels very clunky these days with all it’s features and bloatware. Catching up on social media should be a pretty slick user experience.

Twitter isn’t without similar issues here but it keeps things simplistic. I honestly think Twitter has a very interesting future. It’s very easy to find a company and tweet them and get a response. With bots and AI technology this will get even easier and Twitter lends itself well to slot right in here.

Friends

Facebook is great in this respect. In the last few years I’ve got in touch with friends from schooldays and met them for drinks etc for the first time in decades! and it’s been great. However, all of my friends on Facebook are genuine friends that can phone me or contact me through other means. I follow them on Twitter and I can pick up the phone at any point. And even go outside! and meet them for drinks/food etc.

I know a few friends that have quit Facebook and they’ve said they don’t miss it at all.

But you’re still on Twitter right?!

Sure, and Instagram and other sites which could be classed as social media but none of them come close to the bloatware/clickbait world of pain that Facebook currently offers.

You logged into Facebook – I saw you!

I’m the only admin for a group with over 3k members. After 6 days of being offline I logged in to approve/moderate and there were around 30 new members needing approval. I’m currently looking to hand this over to someone.

The future for Facebook looks bleak

For many of the reasons above I can’t see Facebook improving. They seem to remove or destroy any decent features / content and mess about with things that aren’t broken. IF Facebook ever sorts itself out and gets rid of the crap and starts to become innovative I may one day return but right now it looks unlikely.

Related

We were looking to get away to Europe for a late Summer’s break in September 2016. There was plenty on offer but these late last minute deals are there for a reason. Every time I checked a review for a hotel in Greece or somewhere I was met with shocking reviews. So in the end we decided to look at getting a cabin somewhere away from in all in England.

We’d done one of these forest holidays before and I immediately looked to go back but they were booked up. My second choice was “Sherwood Hideaway” on the edge of Sherwood Forest.

We booked one of the “Woodland Rustic” cabins. Just 2 years old the cabin was stunningly presented. Spotless on arrival and feeling very modern we were suitably impressed.

We were incredibly fortunate with the weather – The temperature was around 27C on the Tuesday and Wednesday we were there with blazing sunshine for the rest of the week apart from Friday when it rained (we were leaving at the checkout time of 10am Friday so we weren’t really bothered).

To enter the forest was a 50 meters walk from our cabin. Parts of the forest have been shaped into walkways. One morning I decided to go for a run and it was ideal. I was getting over a recent calf injury and it started playing up so I had to cut my run short but the forest is ideal for walking and running.

There’s a great walk just a few miles from the cabin that leads you through farm land to Thoresby Hall. Set aside the best part of a day for walking there and around the estate, taking in some food then the walking back.

The double patio doors lead out onto decking complete with ratten furniture and a hot tub. Perfect for unwinding after a days exploring.